At the broad gauge engine facilities there were four more 2-6-2Ts, with two being serviced with open smokeboxes, and two under steam.
A look into the Roca engine shops yielded a stunning contrast in the size of a broad gauge boiler and the boiler of a Baldwin 2-8-2 on the 2' 6" gauge Esquel line in Patagonia which we would be visiting next.
After morphing back into tourists for the late afternoon and evening, we caught an early flight the next morning, flying from Buenos Aires to Esquel via Bahia Blanca and Trelew, arriving about noon. We rode a charter bus from the airport to Esquel and to the narrow gauge facilities. As expected, not much was happening in the middle of the day, just a Henschel 2-8-2 steaming quietly near the engine house.
The plan had been to visit the Los Alerces National Park near Esquel that afternoon, but with a schedule change, the tri-weekly passenger train was making the 250-mile run from Ingeniero Jacobacci to Esquel on this Thursday. So we headed off in the bus to intercept the train at El Maiten, some 103 miles further north. Not a partictularly fast trip, as the road was still unpaved in those days, but we did manage to arrive in El Maiten shortly before the train pulled into the station.